When trying to serialize or unserialize recursive arrays or otherwise linked data you might find the undocumented R data type quite useful.
If you want a array like the one produced with
<?
$a = array();
$a[0] =& $a;
?>
serialized you can store it using a string simular to this one:
<?
$a = unserialize("a:1:{i:0;R:1;}");
?>
Both sources will make $a hold an array that self-references itself in index 0.
The argument for R is the index of the created sub-variable of the serialize-string beginning with 1.